levo

Option: Crime and Deviance

Interactionist explanations and labelling theory

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 3 Section B

Overview

Central claim of labelling theory, master status and self-fulfilling prophecy in the study of deviance.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

State the central claim of labelling theory.

Numbers

Who are moral entrepreneurs?

Numbers

Distinguish primary from secondary deviance.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    State the central claim of labelling theory.

    Model answer

    Labelling theory argues that deviance is created by the reaction to an act. Becker (1963, USA) held that no act is deviant until a label has been successfully applied.

  2. 2

    Who are moral entrepreneurs?

    Model answer

    Moral entrepreneurs are campaigners who work to have a rule created or enforced. Becker (1963, USA) traced American marijuana law to one such campaign.

  3. 3

    Distinguish primary from secondary deviance.

    Model answer

    Lemert (1951, USA) described primary deviance as rule-breaking that attracts no label. Secondary deviance is the behaviour that follows public labelling.

  4. 4

    Which example did Lemert use to illustrate secondary deviance?

    Model answer

    Lemert (1951, USA) studied stuttering among coastal peoples of the Pacific Northwest. Anxiety about a highly valued oratorical skill worsened the very defect that was feared.

  5. 5

    Define master status.

    Model answer

    A master status is a label that overrides every other identity a person holds. Becker (1963, USA) argued that being known as a criminal can eclipse being a parent or a worker.

  6. 6

    Explain the self-fulfilling prophecy in the study of deviance.

    Model answer

    A person treated as deviant may come to accept the identity offered. Legitimate opportunities close, deviant contacts open, and the prediction produces the behaviour.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Culture and the Social Construction of Culture
Socialisation and Its Agencies
Socialisation and Identity
Option: Families and Households

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Early was often ethnocentric.
anthropologypsychologybiology

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ASecularisation has weakened religious pressure to marry.
BCohabitation is now widely accepted.
CThe cost of a wedding deters many couples.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Mortality counts deaths in a population.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Option: Crime and Deviance, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.